Geologist Michael Tice had never lost sleep over a Mars rock before. That changed as he dug into data from the red planet’s Bright Angel rock formation, located in an ancient river valley called Neretva Vallis.
This rock formation contains the most compelling evidence to date for possible ancient life on Mars, based on a new analysis of rocks explored by NASA’s Perseverance rover published September 10 in the journal Nature.
The result “is the closest we've actually come to discovering ancient life on Mars,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA, said at a press conference.
Further research is needed to confirm that life indeed existed there, but for scientists like Tice and his collaborator Joel Hurowitz, the rocks of Bright Angel raise the possibility tha…